Rebirth
by One Sided Pancake
Summary: 9 years after the Alice Game, Jun is a doll-maker, trying to recreate Shinku as a doll. When he fails to recreate her, his newborn daughter may just prove to be the human reincarnation of Shinku, herself... Following the lives of Jun and 'Shinku'.
1. Awaiting the Moment

**Rebirth  
**_Chapter the First_

It was only near twelve o'clock in the evening when the antique-fashioned telephone began to ring a shrill bell sound. It was placed on a very old wooden nightstand in the main room of the building's standards, and the room had so few furniture objects that any sound could be heard in the rooms surrounding it. The ring echoed throughout the halls, and eventually reached the ears of Jun Sakurada.

"Oh," Jun said as he dropped the carving knife in his hand onto the workbench before him. "Is this it...?" Jun took his working apron off and threw it on a stool next to the bench, as he walked over to the crying phone. His hand shaking, he picked up the phone from the receiver and placed it to his ear.

"Hello? Hello?" Jun spoke. When he got no answer, a slight frown curved his face. "Is anyone there...? Hello?" Still no answer. Jun slowly placed the phone back onto its stand.

He had to admit; he was a little disappointed. Tomoe, his beloved wife of three years, was taken in to the hospital earlier today. Jun was expecting a very important phone call any minute now from Nori, his older sister, as to up-to-date information on how she was doing.

Jun inhaled deeply and let out a long, drawn out sigh. He went to pick up his paint-stained apron from its place on the chair and began to put it on. He tied the back, and looked up to the grandfather clock.

Nori should have called by now.

He walked back into his studio, hands in his pockets, and resumed his actions. Jun picked up the wooden paintbrush that lay on its side on the table, and picked up the brown paint palette. Adding the final details to his newest creation's face, he was displeased with himself. He looked down at the doll, and sighed again.

After high school, Jun aspired to become a doll-maker. Although he had only been in the industry for about four years, starting when he was eighteen, he was already following in the footsteps of Rozen himself.

Many people asked Jun why he had become a doll-maker. He kept his explanation short and simple, saying that 'It was just what I felt like I was meant to do.'

In truth, however, his past was a great role in his conclusion. He had remembered the days when he had lived with five rambunctious and energetic dolls; they had taught him some life lessons that he needed, and eventually convinced him that the outside world wasn't as bad as he had made it to be.

Who would believe Jun if he had told his friends this story, which seemed like such a tall tale?

Jun was hard on himself when it came to his work. He didn't accept compliments from anyone, and if they insisted, he would deny that he did not do a good enough job as he would have liked to have done. His current project was one that he had been working on for months, now. Ever since Shinku's Roza Mystica had been taken in the Alice Game, Jun had a hole in his heart. He missed her company, and had felt empty without said doll. That is why, for days in and out, Jun has taken it upon himself to recreate Shinku.

He tried to remember every detail about her: Her long, golden hair that had naturally curled into ringlets at the ends. Her gorgeous ice-blue eyes that seemed to peer into your very soul. The way her eyelashes fluttered when she blinked... Every little detail that Jun remembered from Shinku, he had placed onto this new doll. Right now, Jun was in the process of painting her facial features. He had set aside the glass eyes, in fear that he would accidentally get paint on them. Many passerby would stop and marvel at this New Shinku. They would press their hands and face against the outside window of Jun's shop and encourage the beauty of the doll. Sometimes, however, this would irritate Jun to no end.

"She's beautiful! You should make her hair short and wavy, though," a passerby once suggested. Jun's eyebrows twitched as he snatched the unfinished doll away.

"No! Never! She has to look exactly like _her_... She has to...!"

The customer muttered something as they walked away. "It was just a suggestion..." Jun watched through the window as the customer left. He shut his eyes and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

Jun didn't mean to yell. But, the very idea of this doll being different from Shinku was absurd, in his mind. It was unacceptable.

Jun took the tip of the paintbrush and dipped it in the red paint, and then white. He mixed the two colors together and got a very light and cheerful pink. He resumed painting the lips of the New Shinku, taking extra special care to get it perfect. However, Jun was having difficulties. Were Shinku's lips light and thin? Or were they curled and cute? Although Jun remembered Shinku's primary features, there were just some details that remained blank in his memories of her. He continued painting the lips, when he let out an angry sigh.

"I can't get it right..." Jun complained as he threw the paintbrush back down on the table. The brush bounced off the paper matting and left a light pink stain on the table. "Crap." Jun reached into a bin in the corner of the room, pulling out a red rag. He dampened it with some water from the sink, and placed it on the table. Swishing the rag in circles, he removed the traces of paint. He went to the sink to wring the water out and wash the rag off, and also took the time to wash his hands. He had been working for five hours today.

Jun decided it was time for a break, and went to the secret room in back of the shop. It was hidden behind a large cabinet that contained painting supplies. Jun pushed it to the left, revealing a large door. He went inside and took a seat in the comfortable chair. Tomoe was always telling Jun that he needed to take breaks more often, but Jun was a hard worker when it came to his job. When he did relax, however, he took a lot of time to recollect old times.

"Wow... I never noticed how many antiques I have, lately..." Jun marveled as he glanced at the shelves, chock full of dolls; voodoo dolls, porcelain dolls, paper dolls, marionette dolls... You name it; he had it, and then some. With hundreds of glass eyes staring at him, he didn't feel lonely. Old habits die hard, and Jun was still very much into online shopping... Although, instead of returning them, he had now made purchases if he liked what he had been given.

Jun remembered the day that he opened the drawer desk and pulled out a letter from the spirit, Hollier. "Wind", he had circled, when presented with a two-way question. What would have happened if he had picked, "Don't Wind"? Would he have met Shinku by some other means? Would he have met Tomoe, who would grow up to be his best friend, and eventually his dearest wife? Probably not. But, 'what ifs' didn't matter. He had selected "wind", and sealed his fate.

_Tomoe... _Jun thought to himself. _Are you well? _

Tomoe was in the hospital, expecting to give birth to their first child in exactly one week from now. Jun had told Nori to call him at least an hour before she went into labor, so he could rush over and witness the birth. Jun knew that the baby could be born at any time now, but it was not expected for another week. Jun was hoping to give New Shinku to their baby when it was born, but it was probably not going to happen. Jun was too far behind on crafting her. Oh well.

"Haah..." Jun couldn't hold back a yawn as he stretched in his chair. He put his feet on his desk and rested his hands on the arms of the wooden chair. Jun was very tired, and couldn't seem to hold back a few more yawns. "I need a nap," Jun thought to himself. He reached over to the digital clock next to him and hit the "Alarm" button, and set it for an hour from now. An hour nap won't do any harm, right? If Nori called, it would wake him up, anyways.

Jun drifted off to a deep sleep, a nice relievement from his day at work...  


* * *

_**To be continued in Chapter Two...**_

_**

* * *

**_**One Sided Pancake - Please give me any comments you may have on this story in a review! I thank you for your time for reading Rebirth, and hope you read the upcoming chapters that are to come.  
**


	2. The Beginning of Our Story, Together

**The Beginning of Our Story, Together**  
_Rebirth, Chapter Two_

The first thing Jun remembered waking up was the shrill ring of the phone by his desk. Startled, Jun practically jumped to his feet as he ran to answer the phone. He had barely even had the chance to say 'hello' as the speaker on the other end of the phone burst into the matter.

"Jun! You must come to the hospital, right now! The baby is expected to be born in about an hour...!"

"An hour?!" Jun said, flabbergasted. "But it's only--" He turned around with the phone to his ear as he looked at the clock. 6:14pm. He had overslept two hours. "Dammit! Uh, Nori! I'll be there right away, as soon as I can. Tell Tomoe I'm on my way!!"

Jun slammed the phone on the receiver before Nori could respond. He burst through the front door of his workshop, slamming the door behind him in haste as he ran down the busy street.

Dodging cars of all sorts in the roads he ran across, he was as agile as a cheetah. Jun wasn't a particularly good runner, but if you were to see how fast he ran now, you'd think he was a gold-medal athlete.

_Crap_, Jun thought as he looked at his watch as he ran, _I've gotta be there in twenty minutes..._

As soon as he was at the hospital, Jun quickly stumbled through the revolving entrance door of the tall, white building, almost crashing into the door-greeter.

He ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, to the third floor; Birth and Delivery.

Running through the reception desk area, he ran to room 318, Tomoe's room. He wasn't sure if the doctors already took Tomoe into delievery, so he quickly knocked four times for a response from the other side. When he heard footsteps approach the door, he felt a string of relief.

"Thank goodness you're here!!" Nori exclaimed as she opened the door, embracing Jun in a hug.

"Did...Hah," Jun couldn't catch his breath as he wanted to speak, "Did I make it on time?!" He finally managed to say.

"Yes, yes you did! The doctors should be coming any minute to take Tomoe into the delivery room." Nori said. Then, she grabbed Jun by the hand and led him to the white hospital stretcher that Tomoe lie on.

"Jun... You made it." Tomoe said, with a somewhat fearful expression and a tone of some relief. She reached out for Jun's hand and squeezed it gently. Jun could sense her fear, as he understood all first-time mothers felt. He was afraid too, but he didn't want to curse his luck.

"Yes, Tomoe..." Jun stuttered, his breath consuming his speech, "I'm here for the _both_ of you."

Tomoe gave a faint smile, and Jun felt at peace.

There was a knock at the door, and Nori quickly turned around and opened it. Jun could hear voices, and finally, Nori called out. "Tomoe, they're here." A doctor wearing a blue medical suit and a mask around his neck approached the couple and nodded.

"It's time." He said, and a dozen nurses entered the room, to push the hospital stretcher of Tomoe's into the hallway, and then from there, the delivery room.

Jun held Tomoe's hand as he walked alongside the stretcher, with a feeling of both uncertainty and yet, utter excitement.

--

Jun Sakurada sat on the edge of the stretcher alongside his resting wife, Tomoe. Tomoe held a small white bundle of cloth in her arms, and nestled in the bundle, rest a small pink and healthy baby girl.

"You are very lucky, Mr. and Mrs. Sakurada. With Tomoe's health condition, you were very lucky that both the mother and child survived the pregnancy."

Jun sighed in relief as he, too, had constantly thought before that Tomoe's health might have caused a problem for both her and the baby. He was very glad that they were both healthy and breathing.

He took the back of his hand and gently brushed the baby's cheek. She twitched her nose and clasped her eyes even more shut, retaining her original face a few seconds later.

"Jun..." Tomoe spoke, softly, "She's... She's beautiful."

"Indeed..." Jun said quietly.

Jun looked down into the baby's eyes as she struggled to open them. At first, she scrunched up her nose a little, and then shut her eyes even more as she tried to figure out what use her eyes were. After a couple minutes of struggling, she finally figured it out and opened her tiny left eye.

Blue.

* * *

"Mister and Missus Sakurada, do you have a name for this lovely daughter of yours?" The nurse asked a couple hours after Tomoe was back in her room with the rest of the family.

"W-w..." Tomoe struggled to speak a little, and even then, she was practically inaudible. Jun decided to speak for her.

"Yes... Er, well... We did," he began to explain, "but..."

"You did? What is it?" the nurse asked, holding up the birth papers.

"Well... We just think that... The name doesn't seem to fit her. She has blue eyes... And somehow, it just doesn't seem to be a proper name for her." Jun fished for words to explain the point.

"Actually, it's not a problem. A lot of babies are born with blue eyes that gradually darken to different colors as they get older." The nurse reported.

"Yes, but..." Jun said, "We've been discussing new names."

"Then, did you pick one?" The nurse asked, impatience growing.

Jun looked to Tomoe and nodded.

"Well," Jun spoke as he ran through the pages of his memory for beautiful names, "I think that..."

A familiar name approached his memories as past events reeled through his mind. A time of long ago, where his life took a change for the better. It was the best time in his life. And the name made him remember. Suddenly, Jun firmly stood and decided that the name was perfect.

"I think that I have the perfect name for her..."


	3. It's Her Personality

* * *

**REBIRTH  
**_(Note: There is a five-year time-frame skip from the previous chapter to this one.)_**  
**

* * *

Jun impatiently sat in one of three uncomfortable and firm chairs in a small office. His arms were folded, his legs crossed. He was the only one in the room at the moment, and the room felt like a freezer; Not a good recipe for a happy Jun.

He thought that he may as well leave, but then, the door at the other end of the small room opened, and a woman in her late twenties walked in. She wore a blue jean dress with red apple-shaped earrings. A sharpened yellow pencil lay across the top of her left ear. A school-teacher, most definitely.

"Hello," the woman nodded, "You must be Shinku's father." She held her hand out for a handshake.

Jun nodded, without raising his hand to meet the teacher's handshake. "Yup."

The teacher, not getting a handshake in return, put her hands back on her lap and frowned. The woman was taken back by Jun's informality, and sighed as she struggled in her seat as she thought of how her sentences would be structured towards this parent. She let Jun wonder a little, before she began to speak her mind with unease.

"Mr. Sakurada, do you know why I've called you in here, today?" The kindergarten teacher inquired with a straight face. She was wondering what Jun might say.

"Beats me," Jun effortlessly responded. "Did Shinku do something wrong today?"

The teacher shot Jun a small glare before she corrected him. Jun gazed away from her eyes. "No... It's not that she did anything bad. per say... It's just, I thought that I'd have a little talk with you on your daughter, and Shinku's behavior in our class."

"Ohhhhhhhh jeez..." Jun sat back, folded his hands in his lap, and put his feet on the desk before him as he prepared for the only obvious problem of which he was probably already aware of. "What now?"

The teacher turned and took the plastic water bottle that stood on her desk and drank a large sip, before closing the lid and continuing to speak.

"Mr. Sakurada, Shinku is a very smart individual. Her grades are the finest I've seen in my ten years of teaching at this school. She's rather eager to learn things, and catches on quick with the program..."

"Yeah, so, what's the concern?" Jun interrupted.

The teacher shot Jun another one of her poisonous glares.

"_The concern_, Mister Sakurada, is that she doesn't seem to take well to others. She prefers to do activities and projects alone, and not with other children in the class. When another student offers to advise her without her permission, she'll get extremely upset. She is a brilliant student, but, it concerns me that she seems to be incredibly... bossy... and rather rude. It seems she has no regard to higher authority, and pays no heed to those of lower status than her."

"Tell me something I don't know..." Jun chuckled and sighed as though the teacher was_ finally_ beginning to understand the basic grounds of what he went through day in and day out.

"Mister Sakurada, I'd advise you to try to understand why Shinku is behaving in such a manner. Maybe sit down and have a talk with her, and ask her why it is she behaves in such a manner. It doesn't have to take a long time. In fact, it might help you two understand each other better. Her personality at the moment is lacking. In the long run, it won't be good for her well-being, and--"

Jun stood up abruptly and started to walk his way to the door. He took one look at the teacher, and gave a simple,  
"Thank you, and have a nice day." before slamming the door after him.

* * *

"So, what did Shinku's teacher want?" Tomoe asked as she washed the dishes in the kitchen sink. Her hands were covered with soap as she washed off a small drinking glass, and put it on the other side of the sink to dry.

Jun sat at the dining room table, bored, tapping his fingers against the wooden oak. "She said that Shinku was a _sweet little girl _with an _adorable attitude_."

"No...Really." Tomoe said as she raised an eyebrow. She knew better.

"Okay, you got me... She said that she thought Shinku was bossy and has a foul attitude towards people who pose a threat to her ego... Which, you've got to admit is true."

"No doubt there," Tomoe said with a slight smirk, nodding, "Did she call you there to speak to you about it? That's all?"

"Yeah. I think she was going to preach me on how to be a better parent, or something." Jun rolled his eyes. He hoped that future teachers wouldn't try to do that again. How dare they?

"Ah..." Tomoe said with uninterest for the teacher's offer. She knew that it would be unavoidable in the near future, anyways.  
Both parents had to admit that Shinku had an ego that would set off any teacher's radar.

Jun smirked. "But, she's got the top grades of the class."

"That's great!" Tomoe smiled. Then, her smile grew faint into a small, nostalgic look. She put down the dish she was finished washing, and looked to Jun.

"You know," she said, "Our daughter... She's _exactly_ like her, isn't she? Exactly like Shinku..."

"Yeah," Jun agreed, "From her looks to her brains to her personality." Jun pat the table once to emphasize this thought.

"It's... I have to admit. Sometimes, I have trouble seeing her as my daughter... I hate to say it, really. It's just... It's like having the real Shinku here, with us. Like she never left."

Jun didn't want to admit this, either. He didn't really want to think about it, as it would make him feel bad. This daughter of theirs, seemed like another person completely from her parents. Jun got up from the table and stretched his arms above his head as an interruption of his thoughts. "Speaking of Shinku, where is she?" Jun falsely wondered aloud.

Tomoe turned her head as she lightly smiled and responded,  
"She's upstairs, in her room. I think she's taken a liking to that doll you gave her the other day, Jun."

"Really?" Jun smiled.  
"Thank goodness."

* * *

Jun walked up the creaky floorboard steps as he advanced to Shinku's room. As he looked to the room at the end of the spacious hallway, he saw that the door was slightly open.

He decided to tip-toe over to the small room, as not to alert his daughter of his presence. He started to be able to understand some words of Shinku's whispers as he got closer to the door, but most of them were still held at a murmur. Once he was able to peer inside the elegant-styled room, he saw that Shinku had the doll that he had made her the other day in one hand, and a rag doll Tomoe sewed in the other.

It appears as though Shinku was making the dolls speak.  
The only problem was that not once did Jun see Shinku's mouth move to form words.

The doll Jun finished making the other day was a miniature and elegant Victorian doll, in the shape of a girl. It wore a dress in the color of scarlet, and black hair darker than midnight. It was not a glass doll, as Jun knew that Shinku could be careless sometimes; If she got bored with a toy, she'd often carelessly throw it to the ground as she left to find something more interesting.

The doll Tomoe sewed was a larger doll, in the androgynous form of a boy. She jokingly said that she got inspiration from it by remembering Jun as a child. Blue shirt, black pants, and a pair of glasses drawn onto it with a permanent marker, it looked like Jun from many years ago. It even had wild string hair that stuck in spikes in every direction.

Indeed, Shinku was the child of bored doll-makers.

Jun astonishingly watched as Shinku, lying down, set the dolls on the floor, and they stood on their feet without support. He was even more shocked once he saw that Shinku made the two dolls run around the black floor of the room with some sort of unseen force, still making them whisper to each other. Their whispers gradually increased into a room-volumed speech, and soon, they were almost shouting. They'd laugh, and it appeared as though they were playing some sort of tag. But then again, with a child's imagination like Shinku's, it could have been anything.

It was a very strange and magical sight, but Jun couldn't help but smile, as it looked like Shinku was having a lot of fun.

Jun was glad. Shinku almost never laughed. It was a relief that Shinku was happy now.

He stood there for a second more, until he decided that he should let her be.  
But before he walked away, he wanted to watch her a little longer, as he heard the dolls begin to talk once more.

The two dolls danced for a long time in Shinku's control, on various journeys. Maybe they were on an adventure. Or perhaps they were just living the everyday life of a doll, doing whatever dolls did in their everyday doll lives. All Jun knew, was that it was fun, even just to watch.

It's only natural Jun was surprised when Shinku stopped making them run and paused the doll game abruptly.

The two dolls fell over and hit the ground, and Shinku's face turned itself into a frown. She must have lost control over the dolls.  
But then, her face lit up once again as she commanded the dolls to rise and stand, but the movements were staggered.

Shinku made the dolls walk slowly closer together, and then, they paused once more. The two dolls stood only inches apart from each other. The rugged rag doll stood and looked down upon the Victorian doll, and they stood that way for a good minute or so. Glass eyes stared into the permanent-marker eyes, and Jun watched in excitement as he wondered what was to happen next.

Shinku began to make the dolls speak one last time, and his eyes widened with realization.

"_Pledge your word_," she made the rag doll speak,  
"_That you will protect my Roza Mystica_."

The two dolls lost their consciousness, and Shinku collapsed to the wooden floor instantly.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED...  
**

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Don't forget to leave your review! :-)  
One-Sided-Pancake


	4. Sleeping Beauty

**REBIRTH**  
_- Sleeping Beauty -_

"Jun, I think..." Tomoe began with hope, "I think she'll wake up soon."

Jun's heavy and dreary eyelids flew wide open as he heard Tomoe's spoken words. He instantly rushed from his chair to the opposing side of the room, where Shinku lie in the comfort of her white, antique bed. He placed a trembling hand on the edge as he peer to Shinku's closed eyes. He looked down into his sickly daughter's face, tired and cold from a deep slumber. No emotion rose from her in the slightest.

"Shinku... Shinku dear, are you awake?" Jun asked, waiting for a response. "Can you hear me?"

Shinku gave no answer, nor did her body move from its unconscious state.  
In her bed, sleeping so gentle and quiet, she looked like a pure, little angel who had fallen victim to a curse.

Jun gently brushed Shinku's damp hair off of her heated forehead. He pulled the white covers back up to her chin. "Shinku...?" When he received no response, he wiped the sweat off of his own warm forehead hastily onto his sleeve. Jun groaned loudly, as his daughter had looked no different than she had when this all began.

"She's still asleep," Jun said with a hint of anger, "Still asleep...!" Jun furiously paced the room before Tomoe's eyes as he tried to take out his inner rage in a calm manner. Tomoe was sure that if he kept pacing, he might've worn a path into the floor, soon. "I bet she's hungry, the poor thing..." Jun worried suddenly.

Jun hurried back over to Shinku's bedside and picked up a steaming hot bowl of stew that had been cooling-off on the wooden nightstand nearby. He winced as the bottom of the bowl had still been a little hot at the bottom. The smell of hot stew struck him in the nose, and it made Jun feel sick to the stomach. _Yuck._  
Jun carried the bowl over to his sleeping daughter. He rationed out a small spoonful of the stew Nori had brought over that day for Shinku, and blew the hot air from it as the steam wafted from the metal.

Gently, Jun placed the filled spoon at Shinku's closed mouth, and pushed the contents of the silver utensil in. Shinku did not move a muscle in response, so Jun was forced to gently tilt her chin so that the stew could be digested. With every bite that Jun fed his daughter, he allowed her a small sip of water to better assist the food, going down.

Tomoe stood at the foot of Shinku's bed, as tears ran down her reddened face. It was such a sad sight to see. Jun and Tomoe knew that Shinku was prone to sicknesses, but this was beyond any doctor's imagination. Shinku had to recover soon. _If not..._

The black-haired woman shook her head as she chased the very thought out of her mind. She couldn't lead herself to think such a thought! After all, she and her husband, Jun, had been caring for the blonde child very intently during the past week that she had been sick. Not a single moment did they leave Shinku unattended. They were ensuring the return of Shinku's health.

But, even if Shinku might be getting a little better, there was still one _other_ person to be concerned about...

Tomoe's saddened face fell even more than it had been as she reaffirmed that her husband was looking an awful lot thinner than he used to have been, _before_ Shinku fell severely ill. She can't remember the last time he had eaten, and even then, he hardly ate any of what had been offered.

And that must have been... eight days ago?  
Or maybe was it nine?

Tomoe can't remember.  
Days pass slowly when the entity of your life falls victim to such misfortune.

"Jun, dear... You haven't been eating, lately." Tomoe stated loudly. "You'll _starve_ if you don't have food soon." Tomoe gently put her hand on Jun's shoulder as he sat back in his chair. "I really want you to eat something... I can make you anything that you want, just _please_--"

"I'm not hungry." Jun said coldly.

"Jun..." Tomoe said with concern in her voice, "Shinku will get better. I don't have a single doubt in my mind. Even the doctor said it. So... Please don't confine yourself--"

"I am going to sit here for however long it takes for Shinku to recover," Jun stubbornly confirmed, "That's a promise."

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED...  
**

**

* * *

**_**Author's Note :** Hello, this is One-Sided Pancake, and I would like to say how glad I am that so many of you have reviewed and favored my story thus far! Rozen Maiden stories get so fewer views, nowadays... For loyal readers, I've planned the rest of the story in the next few chapters. I hope that this short, informational chapter lived up to your expectations, at least until I can get the time to once again update a full chapter for you.  
_

_Thanks as always,  
**One-Sided Pancake**_


	5. Shattered Skin

* * *

**REBIRTH  
**_  
Chapter Five:  
_Shattered Skin

* * *

When the hands of the old grandfather clock in Shinku's bedroom ticked nine, Jun sat in a distraught manner on the white chair by the little girl's bedside. The little girl still slept through each ticking sound of the antique time-keeper, but she seemed immune to the magical effects that the clock emitted; For her, time stood still, even as the clock's cruel hands continued forward.

Time did not pass for this girl for quite some time; She's slept in this very room with no awakening for the better half of a month, now. There was no sign of her sleep's end, but for as long as the blonde girl has been trapped in the prison of her own mind, her father was right there, beside her.

He held a small, leather-covered book in his hands, laying it across Shinku's white bed as he read through it. The candlelight that he read by did supply a sufficient amount of light to see the pages of the book clearly, but it was still quite dim in this old and untethered bedroom.

Jun's eyesight, un-insightful as it is, would not be able to read words, however.

In fact, the book that he read had no words.  
And still, he could read the book, with even more insight and understanding than anyone else in this world could possibly hope, the only other person being Jun's wife, herself;

_Shinku's Baby Book._

The words marked the red-leather material front cover in gold lettering. The writing was elegant, many decorative lines and strokes running through each letter like a maze. It had been custom-made by Jun, himself. It took many days to design, and many nights to craft.

The book was very heavy, despite its small and minuscule appearance.

Who knew that love, dreams, and memories, represented by words scribbled on the pages of the insides, could ever make a book so heavy?

Jun had read this books more times in the past month than all the books he's read in his lifetime combined. This story had no plot and no rising actions. It didn't have a happy or a sad ending, and it most certainly contained no 'happily-ever-after' elements.

But it was still Jun's favorite story.

* * *

Jun gently placed the book on the dusty bookshelf in the confinement of Shinku's room. He set it on the very top of the shelf itself; It was too good of a book to be placed with all the dull and ordinary books that could only _hope_ they were _half_ as meaningful.

The exhausted father returned to his seat, remembering old times that passed.

_Remember the time that we took Shinku to the Museum?  
Yeah. She really liked the dinosaur exhibit. She didn't want to leave afterwards, either._

_And the one day we gave her a real marionette doll for Christmas?_

_Not even a week afterwards, she broke all the strings. It was an accident, though._

_And then there was the time that she looked through the mirror and..._

_...and..._

_...Wait, that's the __**other **__Shinku._

_...'The __**other**__ Shinku'?_

Jun couldn't remember.

_Which Shinku was the one who broke the window so long ago?  
Which one ordered Jun to make tea at exactly 98 degrees celsius?_

_Which of them was the one who fought in the Alice Game?_

They were starting to blend together.  
In Jun's mind, they were becoming the same person, in every dimension.

_There's no doubt that this Shinku... is the reincarnation of...that Shinku.  
It'd be stupid to deny it. It can't be denied.  
_

_Shinku died, and was reborn as Shinku once more.  
But, why did she come back in the form of my daughter?_

_And more importantly..._

_...will '__**this**__ Shinku' ever wake up...__  
...unlike '__**that**__ Shinku'?_

Jun stared down to his daughter's face.

_We all remember what happened to the __**other **__Shinku..._

Tired, Jun liked the idea of getting a couple hours of sleep. He yawned two times in a row before he finally decided that his body needed it.  
He rested his head on the edge of Shinku's bed, arms beneath to support them.

_"Just a little nap..."_

_

* * *

Jun stood in the hallway, gazing at a beautiful and elegant painting that hung on the gray colored walls. Every moment Jun stared into the picture, he felt like his soul was being breathed in by the masterpiece before him. It was about the size of Jun's bed, and reached from the ceiling to just a couple of inches above the floor, on the wall. It gave the entire hallway a neutral, yet melancholy feeling._

_Jun reached his arms around the sides of the painting, sliding to the left. He carefully lifted the enormous painting off of the wall, and struggled to find his balance as he carried the tremendously heavy artwork. He set it down against a shelf, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead._

_Man, it's heavier than I remember._

_He looked to the place on the wall that the painting had previously been.  
There was a door._

_I haven't been in here in ages, Jun thought__. It must be awfully musty, now._

_Behind this very door, was the 'Artifact Storage Room', or so Jun coined it. Within it, it had many antiques and collectibles; Trophies, mirrors, iron tables, grandfather clocks, wooden antiques, and especially dolls. The magical mirror that led to the N-Field resided comfortably in there, too._

_In other words, things Jun and Tomoe didn't want any thief to find if they had somehow decided to break into their house.  
_

_Jun began to push the door forward, as it had no doorknob, but instead, was opened by force. When it didn't budge, he was only tempted to push it harder._

_'For Christ's sake, why won't this damned door open?' Jun had wondered with slight irritation._

_He backed up into the wall and charged forwards._

_'I'll just have to open it by force.'_

_Jun rammed into the door, and when he did, not only did he bruise his arm, but he heard the faint sound of glass, or maybe something more solid, shattering._

_'Oh, crap...' Jun gasped, eyes wide with shock._

_No matter what, a shattering sound in the Artifact Storage Room was__ never a good thing.  
Only valuable, priceless object reside in there._

_Now the question was, what exactly broke?_

_Jun gently pushed the door, now that he had rammed it open, and turned on the light-switch. Even with the lights on, however, the room was still very dim, as the light bulbs might have been older than some of the artifacts in here, themselves._

_Sticking his head into the room from the door, Jun looked around the shelves, first. The books were orderly, the glass statues were all in alignment, and the minature grandfather clock still stood, although it did not make a ticking sound. That was no problem, because it never made a ticking sound in the first place._

_Nope, nothing missing.  
Everything is in its proper order._

_But something broke, didn't it?_

_I'm sure of it._

_Jun then decided that he should look around, maybe behind the shelves._

_Opening the door enough to allow himself in, he took two steps into the room.  
When he took a third step, however, he heard and felt glass crumble beneath his feet.  
It was very precise and sharp sounding, like a window had been shattered.  
Very much like the sound he had heard when he barged the door open._

_"Oh, dammit!" Jun said. "Good thing I'm wearing shoes. Otherwise-- Oh... No...!"_

_Jun frantically brought himself into a kneeling position as his eyes widened with fear and disbelief._

_As he lift up his foot, he saw that he had stepped on a small, porcelain hand. It was shattered into many small slivers across the floor, and it had also been shattered up to the wrist.  
And connected to the porcelain hand, lie the inanimate body of Shinku, the doll._

_"I...curse you from this day forth, Jun." Shinku said, her voice hoarse, her skin, shattered._

* * *

"Gah!" Jun cried out from his sleep. He startled himself awake, and he was slightly shaking. "Huh... Same freaking dream every day..."

Jun slowly rubbed at his eyes, chasing away the sleepiness. He yawned and stretched out his limbs, which had fallen asleep earlier.

For the past five years, ever since human Shinku was born, Jun has been having the same dream about the doll Shinku.  
The dream of the final stage of the event that happened so many years ago.

_Hah... 'I curse you from this day forth'.  
Curse me of what, my sleep? My sanity?_

Jun lightly chuckled to himself as he got out of his chair and stretched once more.

_Poor Jun.  
If only he had know that he was exactly correct._

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED  


* * *

**_Author's Note: Don't forget to leave your review!  
There are only about four or five chapters left to this story,  
so be sure to stick around and find out what happens next!_

And, thanks as always to the loyal readers who have left reviews.  
I appreciate and consider them all.  
- **O.S.P**


	6. Prophecies

**REBIRTH - Prophecies**

The same dream had tainted Jun's mind over and over again, like a dense fog that couldn't be lifted. Each night, Jun dreamed of the dream that he couldn't seem to escape from; it played over and over in Jun's mind. Each time he slept, the elapsed nightmare would return. No matter how he tried to lift the dense fog that loomed over his dreaming at night, it just seemed to swing back at him, sooner or later.

_Jun?_

A distant voice calls out to the black-haired man in his unconscious mind.

_...Jun?... _

_...Can you hear me?_

Jun stirs in his sleep, as the state of consciousness tries to rip and twist him from this reality that was a dream. He tries to hold on to the dream, as though this voice were an angel, delivering him the messages of destiny.

_...Jun, oh, dear... Jun...!  
I don't know how to say this, Jun, but..._

_...Tomoe..._

_...She..._

_

* * *

_Jun's awakening crashed unto his mind and body like a tidal wave of the ocean; merciless and unforgiving. Jun instantly jumped upwards from under his covers, as though the bed he lie on had thrown him a couple of feet into the air. He landed on his bottom and sat there in utter shock as he tried to recollect what his dream was trying to tell him. Jun usually wasn't one for reading into his dreams. But in this condition, he felt it might answer his questions.

Why is it that dreams always have to end, right at the time that it really matters?

"To-Tomoe...!" Jun gasped, extending an arm out in front of his own body, as if he were trying to reach for his beloved from within his dreams. His stomach was rising and falling like a flat trampoline; Each breath he took was a staggered puff of air, with lungful gasps in-between each he exhaled. Drenched in sweat, hands shaking; he did not quite understand himself why he was so shaken. Coming to understanding that the dream, the nightmare, was over, he put his shaking arm back down to his sides, and let his head hit the pillow underneath him.

_Tomoe has been missing for nearly a month now_, Jun worries to himself. _Where has she gone? When will she be back? I really do hope she hasn't..._

"Father?"

"Er--!" Jun's eyes pop open out of their sockets, as he looks towards the shadowed silhouette of a small, petite figure. Shimmering light from the hallways glide through the maple-colored bedroom door, illuminating only a small strip of the floor and wall that lie diagonal to Jun. The small figure walks in slowly, making short, tattered, thumping noises with each step it took.

"Father... _I cannot sleep_." The small figure declares rather stately.

Jun reaches for his black, thick-framed glasses, missing the first few attempts to grab them as he extended his arm. He eventually hits them with the tips of his fingers, pulls them toward his body, and finally places them on the bridge of his nose. The dark and blurred silhouette in front of his face slowly begins to take the shape of a very familiar person.

"Oh, Shinku_..." _Jun says aloud rather incredulously, as though he were confirming to himself that she was, in fact, there. "I can't sleep, either." He puts his hand over his forehead and wipes off the beads of sweat that had taken residence there during his dream.

Shinku rubbed her left eye slowly, other arm gripped around the neck of a green-rag voodoo doll that Jun had ordered long ago, when shopping online was a rather fond hobby of his.

Jun bit the inside of his cheek softly, before getting to his feet and saying, "Well, I guess I'm up." He looks at the clock that reads '2:46 A.M' and shakes his head quickly. "Yikes; Only two forty-six in the morning, and I've already gotten my full dose of crazy for one day's sitting."

* * *

"Want more beautiful skin? Or maybe perhaps... a healthy skin? Order Perma-Skin, brought to you by (and made from the same materials as) Clorox Bleach! What'll we think of next?!" The T.V blared at full volume.

"Yes... What **_will_** they think of next?" Jun sarcastically complained as he quickly flipped the remote in his hands, staring angrily with annoyance at the television screen before him. He sunk down in his armrest and with the pressing of two buttons, changed the screen to display the news. He took a deep sigh, throwing the remote carelessly to wherever it would land, and still be in an arm's length.

The elderly weatherman walked on the screen, dressed in a tidy, blue suit with a striped red tie. He stopped walking once he reached the middle of the screen and faced the viewers with a wide, welcoming smile. "Hello, Japan! Today is March 22nd, and we can be expecting some slight rain with a bit of cloudy weather! Temperatures will reach up to--"

Jun groaned and shut the television off. "Booooring. It's not like _we_ ever go outside anyways."

Shinku was playing happily on the floor-space in front of the T.V with her massive doll collection. Her smile was as enlightening as an angel's. She really looked genuinely happy; A sight that Jun took the time to admire in the rare occasion that it should happen.

All of Shinku's unique, macabre dolls lay scattered about from every-which direction, like a preschool toy massacre. There were voodoo dolls, porcelain dolls, and even handmade dolls that Jun and Tomoe had made before Tomoe disappeared.

"Hey, uh, Shinku?" Jun hesitantly said, slim fingers tapping at his sides, impatience growing as he looked at the gigantic mess his daughter was making of the house.

Once Shinku started playing with her many dolls, she never really took any mind to not scatter them about the house. This often would lead to a scolding by her father, although she would take no mind to it as she would order him to pick it up. A little part of Jun remembers the old Shinku, who would reward his 'laziness' with a smack to the face with a blonde pigtail. And remembering this, he'd often do as the new Shinku told.

But today, Jun would like to start breaking Shinku of her bossiness.

"Shinku," Jun began sternly, "I told you to pick up these dolls that you aren't playing with. Now."

Shinku did not respond, already preoccupied. In one hand she held G.I. Joe, and in the other, Barbie. Jun preferred not to listen in on whatever possible situation Shinku was placing them in.

"_Hold on._" Shinku said sharply, making sure to give Jun a stare to the eyes. She continued playing with her dolls, and only looked up again when the little skit she made her dolls perform was completely over. "Yes?"

"Would you mind not making... Er... Such a mess? This place will start lookin' like a pigsty in no time."

Shinku sighed and nodded, grabbing the dolls in her immediate vivacity, putting them in a white, nearby bin. "Yes, Daddy."

Jun couldn't help but smile. Shinku was really a good kid; Always did as she was told, although she did throw in the occasional smart-aleck remark every now and then. But that's what made Shinku, Shinku.

"I'm lucky to have a daughter like you, Shinku. I really am." Jun got up and stretched, arms to the sky above him. He let a drawn-out yawn escape his lacking lungs. "Huh... I should probably check the mail. But it'll all be bills; just you watch... Gah."

Without another word, Jun stomped outside to his front porch and received the mail that lie for him there. "Bills, bills, bills, scam, bills, scam, car catalogs, bills, bills, bills..." He sorted out the excessive junk from the necessities and threw away all of the unnecessary waste.

From the corner of his eye, Jun saw a piece of mail that he had missed earlier.

_Oops, I always forget something every time, I swear, _he thought to himself, bending his knees to pick up the paper.

_Huh... Whaddya know; The newsboy accidentally gave me the neighbors' paper again..._ Jun pondered, then shrugged. _Ah well_. Jun neared the trash can again to throw out the wrinkled newspaper, as he never read these often, before he caught a quick glimpse at the date printed at the top:

_February 17th_

_Huh... But I could've sworn today was the twenty-second... And the month is... March...Not February?_ Jun scratched his head in confusion. Either the newspaper or the weatherman was lying to him, and he wasn't sure which was correct

With ever-growing curiosity, Jun skims the newspaper. He reads lightly over the neatly organized articles, chuckling lightly over the typo errors, and nods with interest as he reads the health section. Almost ready to set the newspaper aside and go back inside the comfort of his home, he reads the front page of the second section of the newspaper before chills run down his spine:

"February 17th

_One pedestrian left dead at scene after hit-and-run early this morning_", Jun read aloud.

With his curiosity still thirsting, he continued to read down below the headline, raising his eyebrow.

"Officials arrived at the scene of the crime at seven o'clock in the morning, after a jogger spotted the body and called 911."

_Oh, god... I can't understand why someone would crash into a live person and leave them for dead like that... It's terrible.  
...I really hope their family is alright._

_

* * *

_

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